I'm so pissed about this, I bought 2 spools of natural ABS and then the colored spools debuted like a week or two later! I've been wanting to print in black for so long...

Does the black hide imperfections as well as the natural, though? Does it have that "softening" effect on the ridges to make it look better at a glance? It's hard to tell from pictures as things always look more ribbed in photos.

I generally find the darker the filament the more it shows the layers. Regardless of the brand. The whites and creams look best in this regard. Black the worst.

I'd normally agree with this but the official black has a matt surface to it which seems to reduce the visibility of the layers when compared to other colors.
I'll have to post some more photos when I get a minute...

That's right.. the matt surface looks more nice than glosy surface.
I like OEM filament's matt feeling of the surface.
I think the worst looking filament is the plaster like grey filament.
It shows true layers, so not good looking.
But lots of modelers like that filament because it can make the exact post work on surface.
Following photo as for example.
The grey model partly sanded. it looks nice.
She looks 20 years older than others because of my bad post work skill.

I generally find the darker the filament the more it shows the layers. Regardless of the brand. The whites and creams look best in this regard. Black the worst.

I'd normally agree with this but the official black has a matt surface to it which seems to reduce the visibility of the layers when compared to other colors.
I'll have to post some more photos when I get a minute...

Interesting. I have a mat black filament, but I haven't tried printing with it yet. Perhaps it will be better than the normal glossy black.

Incidentally I have a Stratasys Mojo sample in ivory and their filament is SUPER glossy. Not sure if that is an effect from the bath or how it comes out normally.

jspark wrote:That's right.. the matt surface looks more nice than glosy surface.
I like OEM filament's matt feeling of the surface.
I think the worst looking filament is the plaster like grey filament.
It shows true layers, so not good looking.
But lots of modelers like that filament because it can make the exact post work on surface.
Following photo as for example.
The grey model partly sanded. it looks nice.
She looks 20 years older than others because of my bad post work skill.

wilsonj wrote:Interesting. I have a mat black filament, but I haven't tried printing with it yet. Perhaps it will be better than the normal glossy black.

Incidentally I have a Stratasys Mojo sample in ivory and their filament is SUPER glossy. Not sure if that is an effect from the bath or how it comes out normally.

Could be from a finishing bath, but the Mojo uses SABIC MG94 resin (what they call 'ABSplus'), while the Standard Stratasys P400 ABS is a very low-gloss material (and it's quite possible that Beijing Tiertime is using the exact same resin - likely Dow Magnum AG700).

I just asked Cool Components and they're expecting to have the coloured ABS in about a week. I didn't ask whether they'd sell as single reels, but no reason to think they wouldn't as that's now they current sell the white.